The Lang Lang circus came to town, pitching a tent in our most exotic movie palace.

New Zealand Opera is bringing Sara Brodie's production of The Magic Flute to Auckland after a successful season in the capital.

Lang Lang may call China his first home but "it's not like I'm living here at the moment," he explains. "I'm just touring all the time. In fact, I'm not living anywhere."

Rachmaninov's Vespers holds a special place in the composer's output, far removed from the popular concertos that reflect his international career as a concert pianist.

Enso String Quartet still has the freshness and attack that spurred one critic to rationalise the group's smouldering power as half honey and half molten lava.

Experiencing Stephen Hough's magisterial Brahms Second Piano Concerto brought back a conversation in which the Englishman talked of the power that came from the work's sense of emotional containment.

Eve de Castro-Robinson introduced her Karlheinz Company programme as music that was vivid, visceral and singular.

Alex Taylor is one of our busiest composers, as happy and able to write symphonic scores for our country's major orchestras, as well as a host of smaller pieces.

Those familiar with the Deutsche Grammophon recordings of Alice Sara Ott may wonder what she is doing in on The Chopin Project.

In 2015, Deutsche Grammophon released a double CD of Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov's 2008 Salzburg Festival recital.

It was distressing to see so many empty seats at the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's Spirit of Anzac concert.

By the standards of present-day "Back-to-Baroquers", Mendelssohn was a musical meddler.

Harpsichordist Christophe Rousset and his three colleagues certainly gave us the perfect soundtrack for such a delicious fantasy.

Male choirs can have an advantage over their female counterparts when it comes to octaves, but women's voices in harmony have always had a unique appeal for composers.

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Edo de Waart's second selection of masterworks on Saturday rewarded a well-filled town hall with music that strayed for only eight minutes from the Teutonic straight and narrow.

Two attractive new releases feature Valencia, alongside Katherine Austin, mining the repertoire for cello and piano, both substantial and stocking-filler.

I'm tempted to borrow a phrase from French composer Francoise Sagan and greet Nicola Benedetti and Leonard Elschenbroich with a cheery "Aimez-vous Brahms?" as the couple are about to play Sagan's Double Concerto.

Christophe Rousset, one of the world's top harpsichordists, visits New Zealand next week.

Working with the legendary Boulez was an unforgettable experience, says Barenboim.

This year sees the return of Unwrap the Music, 3 early evening concerts where conductor Richard Gill introduce pieces coming up in later programmes.

Magdalena Kozena's new Monteverdi album makes one realise why Leo Schrade titled his 1930 study of the Italian, Monteverdi: Creator of Modern Music.

In 2000, Uri Caine's bold transformation of Bach's Goldberg Variations into a vibrant encyclopedia of styles blew welcome raspberries into complacent ears.

A good part of the excitement at Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's latest dance project was experiencing our city's favourite orchestra in the faux-Egyptian temple of The Civic.

The Black Quartet bring a contemporary touch to classical ensemble music and has played with everyone from Kanye West through to our own Six60.

Poetry and power merged as promised for Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of young Spanish conductor Antonio Mendez.

Hopes of adding a Grammy to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's awards cabinet have been dashed after the accolade was handed to the Boston orchestra instead.